Tucked next to the exciting spot, Stateside, is a hidden little gem tucked in a spot you can easily miss along Pike in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Neighborhood.

Think Miami/70s and Art Deco, with outstanding food from the shared Stateside kitchen and fancy specialty cocktails all the while listening to some disco. Go to get away, in a dark corner and get your groove on soon!

Need a faster then fast appetizer for a party? I threw these together in no time. I picked up festive toothpicks and some fresh fruit, cheese and cured meats cut them into bite size pieces. Think about interesting combinations. Here’s is cherry, bacon, Sheeps milk Parma, and blueberry. Also, cantaloupe, prosciutto and Parma. Some were just with fruit alone.

They worked perfectly for the party and were a total hit. No muss, no fuss. And, everyone loved the bite sized combos!

I’m interested in trying watermelon and pineapple versions next. Think of all the great party themes and color combos possible!

What’s better then a little cherry pie in the Summer? But, I wanted to try something fast and super simple to take to the backyard or Summer events.

I ‘can’ all sorts of things and have the lids laying around. And, after seeing something similar figured I would love to try this out myself.

I love homemade pie crust and my bestie has given me the recipe for one that’s truly incredible. I will be using that in the future. For now, it was the Pillsbury ready made crust and a quick pie fill recipe from the “Joy of Cooking” cookbook. I wanted to see how fast this could be if necessary. All in all, this can take around an hour from start to finish this way. If you make your dough from scratch ahead, even better. But, prepping will take a bit more time.

I used the following recipe for the filling and two boxes of crust for a total of 12 pies:

5 cups pitted fresh cherries (from my backyard right now…oh yeah!)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons of corn starch

1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons of water

1/4 teaspoon of almond extract

Smidge of butter under each top layer

1 egg for wash

Sugar for topping the crust before baking

Mix filling and let sit for 15 minutes approximately.

I prepped my crust and decorations during this time. And, turned the oven on.

Fill those mini bad boys. Cover and crimp the sides of your crust with a fork, brush with your egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and bake.

Oven at 350* 25-30 minutes or golden brown, depending on your oven.

Let’s those little cuties cool a bit, then carefully push them out from the bottoms! With a side of ice cream or a can of whip cream and hoping to be the hit of all my parties this season!! 🙌🏼🍒